The GameCube's Rise from the Grave

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How Nintendo's purple lunch box just won't stay dead, and may terrorize the 3DS next. (With Top 10 picks for when it does.)

By Lucas M. Thomas

It's been nearly four years since the GameCube died, and yet it shambles on. Through its hardware, through its software – it's just never really disappeared, even after almost half a decade of the Wii replacing it as Nintendo's flagship console. The system's legacy continues, undeterred, crawling constantly forward with undead resolve.

And the 3DS may be this zombie's next meal.

Now, the GameCube hardware itself has certainly slipped out of sight. Our purple lunch boxes have been packed away, traded in for GameStop credit or hidden in closets to collect dust for eternity. But it's undeniable that, in nearly every other way, Nintendo's GameCube has kept a subtle pulse pumping ever since 2006.

The first piece of life support came through the Wii's backwards compatibility with Cube software – to this day everyone who buys a Wii is also getting a hidden Cube inside, as that disc slot dutifully boots up every miniature optical disc placed within. The second is that the Cube's controller has lived on, still utilized by Nintendo with new Wii releases that require more complicated input that the lone Wii Remote can provide – Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, and every single Virtual Console title retain compatibility with the pad.

But it's the GameCube's library of software that has continued on to be the most prominent memory of the previous hardware generation here in the current era. Through ports, remakes, and play control overhauls, many of Nintendo's Wii releases have simply been updated editions of games we first played back in the earlier half of the '00 decade. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess launched the Wii this way, as a GameCube swan song shoehorned into motion-control form at the last minute – and titles like Metroid Prime Trilogy, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, and the New Play Control! releases of Pikmin, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, and Mario Power Tennis have kept the trend going.

And it's that trend that I think may continue on to infect Nintendo's 3DS. The new portable won't play GameCube discs and it won't include a port to plug in an old Cube controller (though that makes for a fun mock-up image). But the 3DS could very well play host to revisited Cube software designs once again, just as the Wii has been doing for four years now. Through more remakes, ports, and sequels, we could see a sizeable chunk of the 3DS portable library stem straight from those titles we first saw on the last generation's console.

Adding further support to that point is the fact that several developers are already suggesting exactly that, bringing up their favorite GameCube projects in interviews about their 3DS development intentions and implying that ports could be done relatively easily.

So why fight the inevitable invasion? Let's embrace the idea that the 3DS may very well serve as the next battlefront for the software of the undying 'Cube, and move forward trying to make the most of it. There are several GameCube games that I wouldn't mind to see make an encore appearance, after all, and many of them could benefit well from the addition of the new machine's stereoscopic 3D effect – so here's a Top 10 list of picks. Read along, see if you agree with the choices, and try to visualize what they might look like if brought back as either remakes or similarly-styled sequels (the screenshots are even formatted to 3DS dimensions to help you get a better sense.) Here we go!

Hideki Konno wants it to happen. He's the project director for the 3DS hardware today, but a decade ago he was deep into development for the GameCube launch – directing this debut starring role for Mario's twin brother. What's even more interesting is that stereoscopic 3D tech was being worked on with the game at one point. That device (which would have been a TV screen overlay) never made it out of Nintendo's R&D, of course. But it existed.

"I think Luigi's Mansion, that I created for GameCube, would be a good game for the 3DS. The lighting of the game, and the dollhouse-like environment of the game I think would be very suitable for 3D. I think the depth and the width of the environments, like a box, that we had in Luigi's Mansion would be a very good match for the effects of the 3DS."

That's coming pretty close to a confirmation. A remake or sequel to Luigi's lone title role could also expand the original idea, giving our cowardly ghosthunting hero a larger mansion to explore – and it's been far too long since we've seen the likable Ewok-language-speaking Professor E. Gadd.

The current era of interactive adventures in George Lucas' galaxy far, far away seems, to me, to be missing one of the main appeals of the entire franchise – the vehicles. Titles like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and the upcoming Old Republic MMO focus largely on on-foot missions, lightsaber combat, and using the Force. Which is fine. But I miss the epic space battles.

Bring me back into a game where my character never leaves the inside of a cockpit, I say, just as in this second Day 1 launch title for the GameCube – Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. A sequel to the excellent original Rogue Squadron game from the Nintendo 64, Rogue Leader was the showcase piece for the technical power of the Cube with its brilliantly detailed renderings of several classic Star Wars ships and skies, from the X-Wing and the Tie Fighter to the cloud-shrouded floating city of Bespin.

Factor 5, the studio responsible for developing the Rogue Squadron series years ago, has recently bit the dust – so a direct remake of their titles for the 3DS is probably out of the question. But LucasArts could certainly move forward with a new title that explores the same ideas, focusing fully on the currently-neglected vehicle side of Star Wars action. And just think – the stereoscopic 3D might make it a lot easier to bulls-eye those womp rats in your T-16.